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Birth:          ABT  931 of Szekesfehervar, Fejer, Hungary
Death:          ABT  972 

Notes
defeated by Otto the Great 955
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taksony_of_Hungary
Taksony (Hungarian pronunciation: ['t?k?o?]; before or around 931 – early 970s) was 
the Grand Prince of the Hungarians after their catastrophic defeat in the 955 Battle of 
Lechfeld. In his youth he had participated in plundering raids in Western Europe, but 
during his reign the Hungarians only targeted the Byzantine Empire. The Gesta 
Hungarorum recounts that significant Muslim and Pecheneg groups settled in Hungary 
under Taksony.
Early life[edit]

Taksony was the son of Zoltán (the third grand prince of the Hungarians), according 
to the Gesta Hungarorum (written around 1200).[1] The same source adds that 
Taksony's mother was an unnamed daughter of Menumorut, a local ruler defeated by 
the conquering Hungarians[2] shortly before 907.[3] Its unknown author also says that 
Taksony was born "in the year of Our Lord's incarnation 931".[4][5] The Gesta 
Hungarorum reports that Zoltán abdicated in favor of Taksony in 947,[6] three years 
before his own death.[7]

However, modern historians have challenged existing information on Taksony's early 
life. A nearly-contemporaneous source – Liudprand of Cremona's Retribution[8] – 
narrates that Taksony led a plundering raid against Italy in 947, which suggests that 
he was born considerably earlier than 931.[5] His father's reign was preserved only in 
the Gesta Hungarorum; its anonymous author lists Zoltán among the grand princes, 
and all later Hungarian monarchs were descended from him.[9] The Byzantine Emperor 
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus wrote around 950 that Fajsz, Taksony's cousin, was 
grand prince of the Hungarians at that time.[10]


In that time Taxis, king of the Hungarians came to Italy with a large army. Berengar 
gave him ten measures of coins not from his own money, but from an exaction on the 
churches and paupers.

—?Liudprand of Cremona: Retribution[11]

Reign[edit]

A later source, Johannes Aventinus,[2] writes that Taksony fought in the Battle of 
Lechfeld on August 10, 955. There, future Holy Roman Emperor Otto I routed an 
8,000-strong Hungarian army.[12] If this report is reliable, Taksony was one of the few 
Hungarian leaders to survive the battlefield.[2] Modern historians, including Zoltán 
Kordé[2] and Gyula Kristó,[5] suggest that Fajsz abdicated in favor of Taksony around 
that time. After that battle the Hungarians' plundering raids in Western Europe 
stopped, and they were forced to retreat from the lands between the Enns and Traisen 
rivers.[13] However, the Hungarians continued their incursions into the Byzantine 
Empire until the 970s.[14][13]

According to the Gesta Hungarorum, "a great host of Muslims" arrived in Hungary 
"from the land of Bular"[15][16] under Taksony.[17] The contemporaneous Abraham 
ben Jacob also recorded the presence of Muslim merchants from Hungary in Prague in 
965.[18][19] Anonymous also writes of the arrival of Pechenegs during Taksony's 
reign; he granted them "a land to dwell in the region of Kemej as far as the Tisza".
[15][20] The only sign of a Hungarian connection with Western Europe under Taksony 
is a report by Liudprand of Cremona.[18] He writes about Zacheus, whom Pope John 
XII consecrated bishop and "sent to the Hungarians in order to preach that they 
should attack"[21] the Germans in 963.[18][22] However, there is no evidence that 
Zacheus ever arrived in Hungary.[18] Taksony arranged the marriage of his elder son 
Géza to Sarolt, daughter of Gyula of Transylvania,[18] before his death during the 
early 970s.[18]

Family[edit]

Taksony's marriage to a woman "from the land of the Cumans"[15] was arranged by 
his father, according to the Gesta Hungarorum.[2][5] Although this reference to the 
Cumans is anachronistic, Gyula Kristó and other historians argue that the Gesta seems 
to have preserved the memory of the Turkic – Khazar, Pecheneg or Volga Bulgarian – 
origin of Taksony's wife.[2][5] The names of two of their sons (Géza and Michael) 
have been preserved.[23] The following family tree presents Taksony's ancestry and 
his offspring.[24]

Parents
OF HUNGARY Zoltan (ABT  880 - ABT  950)
____ Men (ABT  900 - )

Siblings
OF HUNGARY Taksony (ABT  931 - ABT  972)

Marriage To ----- ----- ( 932 - )
    m.  947 

Notes


Children by ----- -----  932 - 
OF HUNGARY Michael (ABT  950 - ABT  996)

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